1AllcorporaBrighamYoungUniversity(especiallytheCollegeofHumanitiesandtheDepartmentofLinguisticsandEnglishLanguage)hasprovidedgeneroussupporttobuyhardwareandsoftware.AllcorporaMicrosoftgenerouslyprovidedthe64-bitEnterpriseversionofSQLServerthatisthebackboneforthearchitecture.MultiplecorporaTheCorpusdelEspa?ol,theCorpusdoPortuguês,andthenewCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglishwerefundedbylargegrantsfromtheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities.MultiplecorporaPaulRaysonprovidedtheCLAWStagger,whichwasusedfortheCOCA,COHA,andtheTIMEcorpora.CorpusdoPortuguêsThiswasajointprojectwithMichaelFerreira,whohelpedselect,acquire,edit,andannotatetheoldertexts(1300s-1700s),andwhoprovidedthetranslationsofthewebinterface,amongotheractivities.1.Whocreatedthesecorpora?ThecorporawerecreatedbyMarkDavies,ProfessorofLinguisticsatBrighamYoungUniversityinProvo,Utah,USA.Inmostcases(thoughsee#2below)thisinvolveddesigningthecorpora,collectingthetexts,editingandannotatingthem,creatingthecorpusarchitecture,anddesigningandprogrammingthewebinterfaces.EventhoughIusetheterms"we"and"us"onthisandotherpages,mostactivitiesrelatedtothedevelopmentofmostofthesecorporawereactuallycarriedoutbyjustoneperson.2.Whoelsecontributed?2COCASomestudentshelpedtoscanafewofthenovels.COHAManystudentshelpedtoscannovels,magazines,andnon-fictionbooks,andtohelpprocessandcorrectthefilesandlexicon.BNCTheoriginaltextswerelicensedforre-usefromOxfordUniversityPress.3.Couldyouuseadditionalfundingorsupport?Asnotedabove,wehavereceivedsupportfromtheUSNationalEndowmentfortheHumanitiesandBrighamYoungUniversityforthedevelopmentofseveralcorpora.However,wearealwaysinneedofongoingsupportfornewhardwareandsoftware,toaddnewfeatures,andespeciallytocreatenewcorpora.Becausewedonotchargefortheuseofthecorpora(whichareusedby80,000+researchers,teachers,andlanguagelearnerseachmonth)andsincethecreationandmaintenanceofthesecorporaisessentiallya"onepersonenterprise",anyadditionalsupportwouldbeverywelcome.Theremightbegraduateprogramsinlinguistics,orESLorlinguisticspublishers,whomightwanttomakeacontribution,andwewouldthen"spotlight"themonthefrontpageofthecorpora.Also,ifyouhavecontactsatafundingsourceliketheMellonFoundationortheMacArthurgrants,pleaseletthemknowaboutus(andno,we'renotkidding).4.What'sthehistoryofthesecorpora?ThefirstlargeonlinecorpuswastheCorpusdelEspa?olin2002,followedbytheBYU-BNCin2004,theCorpusdoPortuguêsin2006,TIMECorpusin2007,theCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglish(COCA)in2008,andtheCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglish(COHA)in2010.(Moredetails...)5.Whatistheadvantageofthesecorporaoverotheronesthatareavailable?3Forsomelanguagesandtimeperiods,thesearereallytheonlycorporaavailable.Forexample,inspiteofearliercorporaliketheAmericanNationalCorpusandtheBankofEnglish,ourCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglishistheonlylarge,balancedcorpusofcontemporaryAmericanEnglish.InspiteoftheBrownfamilyofcorporaandtheARCHERcorpus,theCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglishistheonlylargeandbalancedcorpusofhistoricalAmericanEnglish.AndtheCorpusdelEspa?olandtheCorpusdoPortuguêsaretheonlylarge,annotatedcorporaofthesetwolanguages.Beyondthe"textual"corpora,however,thecorpusarchitectureandinterfacethatwehavedevelopedallowsforspeed,size,annotation,andarangeofqueriesthatwebelieveisunmatchedwithotherarchitectures,andwhichmakesitusefulforcorporasuchastheBritishNationalCorpus,whichdoeshaveotherin...
